South Africa has closed its temporary repatriation centre in Musina after a sharp decline in the number of undocumented migrants requiring processing, with 48,948 foreign nationals having passed through the facility, the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Migration said Tuesday.
The tragedy has since triggered protests, with demonstrators blocking roads and burning tyres before clashes with police. But describing the unrest simply as a reaction to a shipwreck misses what is really happening.
The deaths have exposed a much deeper problem: people are increasingly willing to risk dying at sea because they see few alternatives on land.
Ben Guerdane is close to Tunisia's border with Libya and has long faced economic marginalisation. Many of the people aboard the boat reportedly came from the area, including members of the same family.
For protesters, the issue was therefore not simply the failed rescue operation. It was about the conditions that made the journey seem worth attempting in the first place.
